. ... [ male announcer ] in blind taste tests, even ragu users chose prego. prego?! but i've been buying ragu for years. [ thinking ] i wonderhat other questionable choices i've made? [ club scene music ] [ sigh of relief ] [ male announcer ] choose taste. choose prego. there's no subtext... just tacos. yeah, it's our job to make you want it. but honestly... it's not that hard. old el paso. when you gotta have mexican.

. ..

>> steve: join us tomorrow. >> brian: there was smoke but no fire. one of our great guest tomorrow. >> alisyn: give to a stunt ranch the vatican, not yet. the black smoke we saw earlier coming out of the chimney at the sistine chapel means the cardinals have not yet picked a pope in the secret deliberations as thousands of catholic faithful wait in the pouring rain of st. peter's square. that is part of the sight we watched earlier today and the rest of the world watching in anticipation with us. good morning, everybody, i'm bill hemmer. welcome to "america's newsroom." who knows when it will --. martha: good morning, bill. i'm martha maccallum. one of the last truly see credit -- secret proceedings that exist in the world. bill: so true. martha: there is so much anticipation. there were two votes earlier today. we expect if they follow procedure they will to do more votes in the coming

hours and then we begin the smoke watch. bill: awaiting we are. religious correspondent lauren green live in vatican city. lauren, hello to you. >> reporter: hello you, bill. we are in kind of a break. the cardinals have having a lunch and maybe a little siesta and maybe talking amongst themselves how they should proceed this afternoon. the vatican right now is having a press conference for the thousands of press credentialed journalists here in rome. i want to give you a little information from what you're saying. the spokesperson, father lombardi, talking about the cardinals having their conclave under michelangelo's creation, "the last judgment". each cardiovascularnal recognizes that each life has a presence. they heard the emotion as they were taking their oath yesterday. he talked about, yes, it was very emotional. he said he was facing a fresca where jesus gives the

keys to peter, all very secret things happening with the conclave. journalists have to remember this is not about politics. we're not covering a presidential election. we're talking about the election of the holy father, the leader of the catholic church. that's why thousands of people are here in st. peter's square and in rome hoping to see the white smoke sometime today or even early tomorrow, bill. bill: their view is not over the next four years but actually spans centuries. what is intriguing about all of this, lauren, is the former pope benedict, what is he doing during this process? how much is he watching? what do we know of that? >> reporter: well, pope benedict xvi as you know, stepped down on february 28th and went to castell gandolfo. that is the summer papal residence. we heard he is watching the proceedings. he saw last night as the master of ceremonies intoned

everybody out. he watched the cardinals enter the sistine chapel. the last time that happened of course when they elected him pope. so he apparently been watching all these proceedings. we know that because his personal assistant, the archbishop has been at the mass since yesterday and a part some of the proceedings. he has been talking to the press people at the vatican. so he imparting some of that information. the holy father, the america's holy father, pope benedict xvi has been watching the proceedings, bill. bill: you wonder about his emotions. thank you, lauren green live at the vatican. greg burke spokesperson for the vatican tweeted earlier in latin, we have showers because it is raining again in rome and will for several days. martha: how about that greg burke tweeting in latin. bill: great sense of humor. martha: this is day two of

the proceedings and if history is any guide here it may not be too long before we get an answer. pope benedict was elected on the second day of balloting. he was a very largely, considered to be a frontrunner at that time. so that was not a huge surprise. it took three days for pope john paul ii. he was definitely much more of a surprise pick. it was a much more open conclave that time around. and pope john paul i, that was a two-day session as well. that was back in 1978. he was pope for such a very, very short time before pope john paul ii came in. the rule that came in that cardinals over the age of 80 could no longer vote for the pope limited number of cardinals. that is the scene we saw from the rooftop in vatican scare, it is black smoke. sometimes when it comes out you're not sure for a second. we keep an eye closely on the tiny chimney.

the black smoke comes from coal tar and sulfur, a couple of chemicals in there it is formed when the ballots are combined with ignited chemicals. the chemicals are elect i canly set on fire in a special stove first used in the conclave of 2005. as the vatican goes it is relatively new, bill. it is a new appliance. bill: that is true, martha. when we look at the view above vatican city, you see all the stone and marble here. he want to show you what is important to look at here on the telestrator behind us. here on the top floor, that is the pope's living quarters. and the far two right windows here, that would be his study and bedroom. often times that's where you see the pope on sunday mornings. then the apostolic palace extend to the left. this is the top, the roof of the sistine chapel. more on that in a moment. this is st. peter's basilica, the giant church. home of the vatican.

this is the front balcony the world will see the pope, whoever that is for the very first time. down below, you see this row, a sort of fencing that is set up. the nuns and priests from congregations all over the world will gather there. then you see the public start to fill in here by the tens of thousands once there is a new pope. let's go back to the sistine chapel if i can real quick, to try to get this sucker to work for you. on the top area of this roof, we'll just zoom in, a little hard to tell on this image but this is where the six-foot chimney has been elect -- erected the entire world is waiting on to see what happens. seven years ago, eight years ago, martha, the people who gathered there, among the public, largely polish because of pope john paul ii. if you get an italian pope which we have not seen three times since 1978, there will potentially a million italians will flock to that part of their country in italy. >> such an incredible place. even with the rain it us so

beautiful and mystical and just an incredible thing we're watching. when you look at the windows, the apartment is empty waiting for its new resident. hopefully we'll find out maybe this afternoon. maybe in a day or so. talked to. bill: we talked to lauren green. and then we'll walk with joan lewis, the catholic television network, as we await day two from the vatican. martha: let's go back to a much smaller dome down in washington, d.c. this morning and news about the president obama as he responds to congressman paul ryan's plan to balance the budget in ten years. we still have not seen the president's budget. that was due last month. we remember that an extension was requested but he tells abc news that the congressman, congressman ryan, and he, have very different goals when it comes to the economy. listen to this. >> my goal is not to chase a balanced budget just for the sake of balance. my goal is how do we grow the economy, put people back

to work, and if we do that, we're going to be bringing in more revenue. martha: stuart varney, host of "varney & company" on the fox business network. what do you think about that statement? he says you shouldn't just chase a balanced budget just for the sake of being able to say it is balanced? >> i think the president was spelling out his priority and his priority is not balancing the budget for the sake of balancing the budget. his priority is growth by spending more government money. that i think is his priority. and as you said, martha, that is in sharp contrast to paul ryan who is deliberately going after deficits and the debt and wants to balance in ten years. so you've got two very clear sides here. the president says, spending and debt probably sustainable. paul ryan said, no, it is definitely not. martha: is that debt sustainable, stuart? it's growing like wildfire. >> take a look at right now. at the moment, as of this moment the america's established debt, the total of our debt is the $16.7

trillion. it is going up by around $3.3 billion a day. that means that we're going to hit $17 trillion round-about mid september. remember it was september 4th last year when we crossed 16 trillion. whether that is sustainable or not depends on your politics or the economic opinion. the fact it is mounting dramatically. case closed. >> so much is said whether or not we should balance the budget. paul ryan's budget balances it in in ten years. when you ask the democrats when theirs balances it works towards balancing which never actually does according to the numbers that we're seeing. the president says that paul ryan'sç plan rolled out is just a rehash what we heard before from republicans. is that true? >> largely true but there is one huge difference. that is the tax increases that have already gone into effect on january the 1st. paul ryan budget accepts the increases. it does not attempt to change them. in other words he is not

rehashing the whole fiscal cliff debate. he is accepting that, yes, we've got these higher tax rates in place. we all keep them. that's a huge difference from where he was before the election. martha: he includes tax cuts, tax hikes, i should say but doesn't include obamacare. he would like to see that go. >> he wants that out of here. >> stuart, thank you very much. bill: you've been waiting 1400 days and finally we got a budget. so now we know. martha: it is exciting. takes less time to pick a pope. put it that way. at least we think so. bill: in the modern day. martha: exactly. bill: in "america's newsroom" the new polling shows public view since the election. is the honeymoon over? some numbers tell a very interesting story on that topic. martha: this one is not going away, folks. the fight whether or not you can bring those kind of knives, little pocket knives on a plane for the first time since september 11th. now a lawmaker is demanding to have this reversed now. bill: also if you golf, four,

look out. what popped up on this course that gave, well one golfer quite a surprise. >> i was just yelling for them to get a rope, get a ladder and i need to get out of here. y is wrong ♪ ♪ i don't wanna be right [ record scratch ] what?! it's not bad for you. it just tastes that way. [ female announcer ] honey nut cheerios cereal -- heart-healthy, whole grain oats. you can't go wrong loving it.

. .. martha: well the faa is giving boeing the go-ahead now to begin test flights of those grounded dreamliners after they had to take it back to the drawing board and redesign the lithium-ion battery pack. investigators blame the overheating of those batteries for a fire onboard a plane at boston's airport and an emergency landing you see witnessing there, you see there that happened in japan. boeing plans to change the battery's internal components we're told and they will add separatetores between the cells to try to minimize the possibility of chain reactions. we'll see if it works. bill: it is smoke watch at the vatican. no new pope yet but the cardinals are set to vote again, very soon in fact in

what would be their fourth round of voting. you had one yesterday. two round earlier today. we should see smoke coming out of that chimney possibly in the next few hours. this is all cardinal rule so to speak. joan lewis, rome chief for ewtn catholic network, outside the walls in rome in vatican city. you live right in the area, joan. give us a sense of the mood, atmosphere, what you have noticed in the last couple days there? we'll try to hold the shot there if we can. we have you now, joan, go ahead. >> i have to tell you --. bill: my apologies there. a lot of showers through the area that we watched the past couple days now. so perhaps a bit of interference in the satellite. once we get joan re-established we'll get her reflection. she was telling us she lives right outside the vatican wall and the amount of security that's in place and just what she is observing is a big change for her. back to joan, now, we've got

you loud and clear. go for it. >> all righty. yes. i live in a vatican-owned apartment buildings right outside the southwall of vatican city. from my living room, dining room window you can see the residence. for four or five days i watched all these workers on the roof and i imagined what they were installing was the systems that would block all, jam all communications to and from santa marta little did i know that our apartment building and the ones on either side of me, we are unwilting victims of that jamming. so i have had no internet for five days and the cell phone service, the cell phone service is intermittent. i have to leave my home to do work, go to the press office, go to the ewtn studios. bill: the lesson in that story that the security system works, right? >> it works. it works exactly.

and so there obviously and in the sistine chapel things are blocked. interestingly enough the very amazing big paul the sixth audience hall, that has been transformed, the vatican did an awesome job on this, into a media center. again they're deprived of wi-fi. you have to find other means of the communications to get our stories out and your pictures out. bill: you have to imagine, they didn't deal with this in 2005. i mean it was a much less or lower level. also what? go ahead. >> well they did jam. they jammed both the residence and the sistine chapel in 2005 but they did not do that in '78 when john paul was elected. we didn't even have cell phones as far as i remember. bill: that is true. i thought listening to lauren green about 15 minutes ago was rather fascinating in the sense that pope benedict, who is just outside rome still, what do you hear from vatican officials maybe what

his emotions are perhaps or whether he's watching or how he is getting information, joan? >> he is getting information from the television and of course his secretary was at events yesterday. monsignor gashwin he lives with benedict at castell gandolfo and will move back with him when he moves back into vatican city. he has talked to the cardinals. i've been kind of curious about the fact that the cardinals in the congregations have been establishing a profile of the new holy father, what they need and it is like if you're benedict you're sitting there but he is such a humble man he is probably not affected by this but you're benedict and you're saying, okay, they created this profile. i didn't quite meet the profile in that respect, or i did meet it in this respect. so that has to be fascinating for him. but his humility would

certainly not allow him to be offended by a profile. bill: fascinating. we are well into day two. i mean how did you place your bet? when do you think we'll know? >> i have said i think with would have a pope by thursday afternoon, thursday evening. and the thing is, with today, if you look at the vote this afternoon, only 24 hours of a the start of the conclave. ratzinger as a frontrunner, ratzinger as a frontrunner eight years ago. there were other names. they sifted through the votes as the first vote yesterday afternoon did. there are more names on that menu this year. even though the cardinals have met for a lot of days they felt they were ready to go into conclave or they would not have chosen the 12 to start. so i think they know where they're going, and they don't discuss anything in the conclave. that is just voting. bill: they're aware of the vote count which i think is interesting also. if you're right and it is

thursday afternoon, that would be, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, that might be, eight or nine or ten votes? >> thursday afternoon would be the 7th and 8th vote. 8th or 9th if you count yesterday afternoon. by the end of day i still think we would see black smoke. i would be surprised if we did see white. by end of the day, four votes. two more tomorrow morning we may getting down to one or two persons by tomorrow morning. clear that up tomorrow afternoon. who knows, you talk to the chimney camera, okay? >> yeah. we know the jamming, the jamming works so. bill: indeed. joan lewis, thanks again. great to get your insights there from rome. martha, 20 minutes past the hour. martha: back here at home it has been ten days now since those budget cuts went through in washington, d.c., and as you know they canceled the tours at the white house despite a lot of efforts to get them back up and running but you might be surprised what they're

posting these days on a white house jobs site. bill: the battle over the change to allow small knives on planes. it is getting hotter by the day. lawmakers now, they're getting in on the action and they are demanding action themselves because of this. >> let's not forget it was blades that caused what happened on sestd 11th, right? and i'm a boston flight attend adapt for united airlines. was my friends who died on september 11th. so this is personal for me. but it is also very concerning for flight attendants throughout the country. ♪ [ male announcer ] help brazil reduce its overall reliance on foreign imports with the launch of the country's largest petrochemical operation. ♪ when emerson takes up the challenge, "it's never been done before" simply bemes consider it solved. emerson. ♪

emerson. great first gig! let's go! party! awwwww... arigato! we are outta here! party...... finding you the perfect place, every step of the way. hotels.com

>> announcer: meet mary. she loves tohop online with her debit ca and so does bill, an identity thf who stole mary's identity, took over her bank accountand stole her hard-earned money. unfortunately, millions of ericans just like you learn misplaced information to wreak havoc on your life. this is identity theft and

no one helps stop it better than lifelock. if mary had lifelock's bank account alerts, she would have been notified in time to help stop it. lifelock has the most protection available,y theft guarding your social security number, your money, your credit, even the eity in your home. you even get a $1 million service guarantee. that's security no one can bt. [♪...] [click click] [♪...] bill: there is a massive late season snowstorm in europe that's causing a massive pileup on one of the world's fastest highways. 100 cars tank felled up on the auto bonn in germany and

more than injured. the highway was shut down for hours as first-responders helped people trapped in that mess. a big storm rolling through. martha: this is a hot story. the tsa chief is now set to testify on capitol hill tomorrow on the controversial changes regarding the items that americans can now bring on planes including little pocket knives which are now okay. you can bring lacrosse stick and hockey stick baseball bat and everything else. the tsa is defending the decision to permit these items back on board the planes but top airlines, as well as several lawmakers are fighting this. they think this is an outrage and i want to talk to scott brenner about this. he is a former faa official. he is with gephardt government affairs. good to have you here this morning, scott. >> hey, martha. martha: we had an air marshal here the other day and a flight attendant the other day. let me tell you they are incredulous that this would be even be considered having

lost friends on 9/11 to box cutters, small blades. they think this is a ridiculous idea. >> i'm empathetic with them, martha. once we secure the cockpit doors on all aircraft we eliminated that threat of smaller knives and things like that bringing down an aircraft. i applaud tsa for finally moving towards a risk-based initiative such as this where they're trying to focus on what is the greatest risk to bring down an aircraft? clearly a pocketknife will not bring down an aircraft. flight attendants i think are justified saying we're still concerned that something will happen to them but at the end of the day i really don't think that's our largest threat. i mean the more we can focus our resources at identifying those people who are most likely to do us harm the better off we're going to be. martha: i'm reading an article here. it says, according to the court documents, khalid sheikh mohammed who everybody knows was the alleged architect. he has not finished his

trial yet for september 11th. he claimed that the al qaeda trainers had each hijacker butcher a sheep and a example with a swiss army knife in order to train them for what they were going to do. and i find it fascinating also that the spokesperson for tsa says, well, we're still going to be cracking down on box cutters, there is simply too much emotion connected to the box cutter. i mean, you look at the stuff that goes on the tsa lines and they let through somebody with a bomb in their underpants, it's shocking to me that what they're doing is, you know, figuring out ways to let up on something like small knives. it just seems, it seems dumb to be perfectly honest. >> you know i think also have to look at the mindset of the traveler now. prior to 9/11 the idea was always cooperate with the terrorist no matter what kind of threat they had. if somebody comes up with a box cutter in a cabin they're not going to probably survive very long if threatening to bring down an aircraft because

passengers will not tolerate that. as a point of just the lines, martha, tsa guys they're to look for every little thing and they're focusing on little knives versus what you're talking about earlier about, you know, somebody getting through with a bomb. i think it will improve the efficiency of the tsa lines and let them focus on things that really matter. not a hockey stick, a lacrosse stick or a little knife like this. martha: there is a lot of controversy about the liquids as well and why that wouldn't have been sort of first thing to allow people to bring back on. i think the, the bigger picture here seems to be that people don't feel they're safer because of tsa. they wait in these long lines. they take off their shoes thanks to richard reid and can't bring little knives on board thanks to everything that happened horrifically on 9/11, the feeling is we're not doing a good job to prevent anything real from haing here. how will this help that? >> it allows once again, let's move our defense to

spend more money on intelligence-gathering. let's quit focusing on the little things like a knife. i probably agree with most folks. i don't know if we really feel safer but at the end of the day we have not had any major terrorist attacks since 9/11. i don't know if tsa has prevented a single one of them. martha: not that we know of. >> not that we know of, but you have to look at the picture as a whole. martha: scott, it's a hot topic. thank you so much for being here. we'll see if it gets us anywhere and how the hearing goes on capitol hill. scott, have a great day. >> thanks, martha. bill: ceo of delta air lines came out against it. you do not often see those two crossing paths but they have. martha: agree. bill: there are brand new poll numbers showing a dramatic change of opinion of president obama since election day. what the poll numbers tell us how you're feeling at home. back with that. ♪

[ female announcer ] from more efficient payments. ♪ to more efficient pick-ups. ♪ wiress is limitless. [ female announcer ] from tracking the bus. ♪ to tracking field conditions. ♪ wireless is limitless. ♪ all right that's a fifth-floor probleok.. not in my house! ha ha ha! ha ha ha! no no no! not today! ha ha ha! ha ha ha! jimmy how happy are folks who save hundreds of dollars switching to geico?

happier than dikembe mutumbo blocking a shot. get happy. get geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. >> announcer: meet mary. she loves to shop online with her debit card, and so does bill, an identity thief who stole mary's identity, took over her bank accounts and stole her hard-earned money. now meet jack. after 40 years, he finally saved enough to enjoy retirement. angie, the waitress at jack's favorite diner, is also enjoying his retirement. with just a little information,

she's opened up a credit line, draining the equity in jack's home. unfortunately, millions of americans just like you learn all it may take is a little misplaced information to wreak havoc on your life. this is identity theft, and no one helps stop it better than lifelock. see, ordinary credit monitoring services tell you after your identity has been stolen. they may take 30 days to alert you-- too late for jack. lifelock has the most comprehensive identity theft protection available. if mary had lifelock's bank account alerts, she may have been notified in time to help stop it. if jack had lifelock's 24/7 proactive protection, he could have been alerted by phone or e-mail as soon as they noticed an attack on their network, before it was too late. lifelock has the most comprehensive identity theft protection available, guarding your social security number, your money, your credit, even the equity in your home. while identity theft can't be completely stopped, no one works harder to protect you than lifelock. you even get a $1 million

service guarantee. that's security no one can beat. you have so much to protect and nothing to lose when you call lifelock right now and get 60 days of identity theft protection risk free-- that's right, 60 days risk free-- use promo code: notme. order now and get this document shredder to keep sensitive documents out of the wrong hands-- a $29 value, free. call the number on your screen. [♪...] bill: now to a case out of ohio that is getting national attention. a trial begins today for a pair of high school football players charged with rape. now the story caught fire when photos and video from the case spread across all over social media. mike tobin is live on the ground, steubenville, ohio, eastern corner of the state. mike, good morning there. >> reporter: good morning

bill. both the defense and prosecution say this will be pretty much a standard sexual assault case with a glaring difference that it has been inflamed with posts on social media and posts on the internet. the most notable of the posts are one, a photograph of this drunk, unconscious girl being carried by the two defendants. then there was a video posted, a drunk, obnoxious rambling of michael. he laughs about the unconscious girl being raped, sodomized and urinated upon. however he was not present at the two incidents on trial. the claim she was sodomized or urinated upon is not accurate. the allegation on trial that the defendants violated the unconscious girl with their hands. under ohio law that meets the standard for rape. but social media has run bad inflammatory information about everything from five or six rapists to a police cover-up. also nasty, taunting of the victim. >> she has been victimized the first time.

she is victimized by social media. and starting tomorrow she will have to testify in court. report property now attorney general mike dewine says the evidence against the two football players is solid enough to get a conviction or his office would not have brought the case. the defense has another take. the defense says there is no solid evidence, only testimony from witnesses. therefore his burden will be only to punch holes in the credibility of statements made by teenagers who were drunk at the time. bill? bill: if that is the case, mike, is this a trial where the alleged victim is on trial? >> reporter: the short answer is yes. the defense won't phrase it that way but the defense will bring testimony and evidence that this girl consented, their claim she consented because she chose to drink too much. she chose to get in the car. she even romantically pursued one of the defendants. also they will attempt to bring information into this trial that this girl got herself into similar

situations in the past, bill. bill: thanks, mike tobin, on the ground, steubenville, ohio. martha: the obama administration canceling tours of the white house as you probably have heard by now. they say it is necessary because they had to do some budget cuts that affected secret service and that overflowed into having some difficulty keeping the tours going as we head into the big spring season. but a quick search finds that the same government says that it can pay for the people's house to stay open to the public also posted nearly 2600 new government job openings since the automatic spending cuts kicked in. something doesn't seem right there, does it? let's bring in stephen moore, senior economics writer for "the wall street journal" it is a little mind-boggling you go you there the sequester cuts and jobs layoffs and i have a swhol list of people who told their jobs were in jeopardy. why would the post office -- white house post 2600 new job openings. >> as you know, martha, i

live in northern virginia, a lot of people in my neighborhood down the street are being furloughed from their jobs. meanwhile the federal government is hiring 2600 new workers. by the way, i looked at the list of a lot of those job positions. they're not urgent and essential employees, martha. we're talking about librarians. sociologists, dairy technicians. lawyers. i don't think there an urgent need for that at a time when we're laying off air traffic controllers. martha: 909 jobs are posted in veterans' affairs. >> right. martha: i mean i think when you just look at that alone, a lot of people think we're not doing a very good job taking care of our veterans in this country but apparently they have 909 positions open to help better that situation i suppose. agriculture, we heard the meat inspections were very much in danger and you might be eating things that are unsafe yet they posted 115 new jobs they will try to fill in agriculture.

>> yeah. that is amazing thing. i'm not making this up, martha, that one of the jobs is an agriculture librarian. does that sound like it is a high priority to you at a time when we have the federal government saying they may have to shut down the hours that the yellowstone national park? that they have to lay off, you know as you said, meat inspectors and that they have to lay off air traffic controllers? i think there is a real question, martha of prioritization. are we actually cutting the things, the waste or are we cutting the bone? i look at what happened last week or two, i would have to say a lot of most sensitive services are the ones getting cut first. martha: just also gives you, it is an eye-opener in terms of the massive bureaucracy that exists in washington where one hand doesn't know what the other hand is doing, right? it would be perfectly plausible to me, the white house said, clearly we're not going to hire anyone until after the sequester is over. >> right. martha: the fact there is so much time spent on optics, you know, and how things look. this looks lousy.

it just is, it looks terrible. >> it does look terrible. i was just looking at a recent poll that asks the average american how much money do you think goes to washington is wasted, martha? the median answer of american voters was 25 to 30%. a lot of people are scratching their heads. why is it that the things we really care about like you said, services for veterans are getting cut when the things that really don't matter aren't? that gets to the question of management of this awesomely large federal bureaucracy which as you know is the biggest bureaucracy in the world. martha: it is unbelievable. drive around washington and you can't believe the size of the buildings, you wonder, no doubt there are people there doing good things but do you need that money? hire new employees at veteran affairs when ones there don't seem to be serving the needs. >> do you remember the deal ross perot joke where he went to the u.s. department of agriculture building and employee was crying. why are you crying? he said my farmer died.

we have a lot of employees. martha: my dadness. steve, thank you. >> great to be with you. martha: see you soon. bill: 20 minutes before the hour. many are saying the honeymoon is over. that is coming from the reporters. a new poll shows the president is facing tough critics. martha: you think you have trouble on the fairway, oh my. what one golfer encountered. wait until you hear his story. >> first step, right on it, i was gone. yeah, my immediate reaction, what is happening, freaking out, hoping that i land softly someplace. yeah, it was terrifying at first for sure. peak of perfecti. the vegetables do. at green giant, we pk vegetables only when they're perfect. then freeze them fast so they're are as nutritious as fresh. [ green giant ] ho ho ho. ♪ green giant

[ slap! ] [ male announcer ] your favorite foods fighting you? fight back fast with tums. calcium-rich tums starts working so fast you'll forget you h heartburn. ♪ tum tum tum tum tums mommy's having a french fry. yes she is, yes she is. [ bop ] [ male announcer ] could've had a v8. 100% vegetable juice, with three of your daily vegetable servings in every little bottle.

[ babies crying ] surprise -- your house was built on an ancient burial ground. [ ghosts moaning ] surprise -- your car needs a new transmission. [ coyote howls ] how about no more surprises? now you can get all the online trading tools you need without any surprise fees. ♪ it's not rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade.

martha: well this will make you think twice about playing hookey from work. the british man made a international headlines when he got between a shark and his kids in an australian beach is out of his job. he was on sick leave for stress apparently at the time of that beach outing. a letter from his former

employer, a charity no less, says, while unfit to work, you were well enough to travel to australia. according to recent news footage of yourself in queensland, you allegedly grabbed a shark by the tail and narrowly missed being beaten by quickly jumping out of the way. how great is that? is bit after bad break for him. but he has a great story to tell, right. he may have saved the kids lives. maybe the charity will be charitable maybe stress relief was going to the beach for him. he was getting rid of stress. bill: australia. tough mates. all done. post-election honeymoon might be over as far as the public is concerned. here is the new poll. take a look at it. the president all but lost any advantage he had over republicans when it comes to whom do you trust to the handle the economy. mr. obama dropping ten points since december. whoa. tucker carlson, editor, daily caller, fox news contributor. alan colmes host of the

"alan colmes radio show". gentlemen, good morning to both of you. tucker, what gifls here? >> well i think the president overplayed his hand on the sequester. this is by the way --. bill: really? you think that's it? >> i think it is cumulative effect. keep in mind the president last term promised to right the economy with a serious of stimulus packages. that didn't work to rein in health care costs with obamacare. that didn't work. to fix the budget gap by raising taxes on the rich. that doesn't work. then the government would collapse if the equestionster took effect that happened. 3/4 of people polled say they don't see an effect in their lives. you keep saying stuff that isn't true it affects poll numbers. bill: the line is getting closer and closer who the public blames. for a long time it was house republicans house republicans we don't see it that much in the polling. alan what do you think is it going on here? is it sequester or previous failed policies trying to get economy rolling? >> i think it is neither.

i think it is typical post-honeymoon period. george w. bush was pretty much the same point at this point in his presidency. certainly not that unusual. if you look inside these numbers that just came out, for example, there's a 53% believe the economy is improving which certainly helps the president. the comfort level is the best it has been in five years according to bloomberg metrics. 58-33% believe we should be cutting military spending right in line what the president wants to do. 56-38% say cut loopholes for the rich, right in line with what the democrats want to do. if you look at specifics see what it is people seem to be favoring --. bill: that is interesting point to make. but here is another specific too from the poll. among independents, he has dropped about ten points going back to the month of january alone. 50% disapproval, tucker. >> right. so this, actually it is not common. i think since harry truman there has been one other president, george w. bush who was polling at 50% four

months after his re-election. this is a bad news. the president's not running for re-election of course but he is very focused on getting democrats back into the majority in the house in the midterm elections in 2014. with numbers like this the drop among independents, ominous. i would say the most ominous fact from these polls though is the divide between various segments of the population. obama's approval rating among black voters, 96%. among white voters, 41%. so that, you actually, i'm not even blaming the president for that. i'm just noting that is not a good thing. i think it's bad. >> i think pretty much the way it's been and pretty much the way the election was. bill: among white voters? >> always did better among nonwhite voters. independents overwhelmingly favor military cuts and not cutting medicaid. so when some of the republican ideas kick in, in fact the ryan budget, two to one margin, people according to the poll, people don't want across-the-board cuts.

that doesn't favor the ryan budget what republicans want to do. policy favors democrats. bill: let's go 30,000 feet here. lead line in the "washington post" now today, the afterglow of president obama's re-election inauguration appear to have vanished. you go to politico come, missed chance,. >> i thought the president had the press in his pocket. what happened? bill: that's a great point, alan. what is change? >> the fact is the press isn't in his pocket. >> of course the press is sympathetic to the president. of course there is no debate about that but he went into the second term with a pretty bellicose posture. look at second inaugural. look at state of the union address. neither one gave a lot to other side. he basically drew a line in the sand on issue after issue. possible he overreached early. gun control. the president energized the republican base on that particular issue faster than what i thought possible. if the goal is to take

congress back for democrats two years it will be a lot tougher. bill: alan, last word. eight seconds. >> gun control. all polls show people favor more restrictions on guns. >> in your neighborhood. >> in your neighborhood. bill: thank you, alan. thank you, tucker. >> thanks, bill. bill: martha. martha: the nation's top spies have issued a dire warning for this country. the threat that they are now calling actually more dangerous to our security here at home than al qaeda. bill: hey, there is no hole-in-one for this guy. i guess you can make --. martha: waiting for the hole-in-one reference to the segment, bill. bill: how about, four! he was swallowed by a sinkhole. how he made it out alive. this is remarkable why do people count on sunsweet prune juice to stay fit on the inside? it's made only from prunes, nothing else.

it works, simple as that. it's a natural source of fiber and five essential vitamins. it's the smart choice for me. stay fit on the inside with sunsweet's amazing juices.

martha: well a golfer is luck can i to be alive after

swallowed by a sinkhole. we have a sinkhole story every couple days of, right? he was in the middle of a golf match and disappeared. 43 mark mihal fell eight teen feet. that is magic number. the if gave away beneath him. the only injury was a dislocated shoulder. it could have been much worse for this guy. >> it was dark. finally my eyes got used to the light. i looked around. felt like a cave. there was room in there. it wasn't confined which was nice. looking down it would go further. looked like i wasn't at the bottom. martha: that is a nightmare you're falling and falling. this guy lived it as we've seen other people do in the past few weeks, right? fox st. louis reporter betsy bruce has an in-depth look how this happened. >> reporter: one golfer thought his friend, mark mihal, had stumbled and fallen down the hill he

vanished so quickly. a second just 15 feet away, turned and saw no sign of his friend. it was almost as if the earth swallowed mark and closed over the hole. >> the tear, and it looking like carpet. that was the -- >> zoysia. >> the grass. he started yelling. heard mark in there. he was down in the hole report report ed became the hero of the day. he credits divine intervention he left a flashlight in his pocket the night before. the golf cows owner brought a 12-foot ladder to the scene and that's what he climb down. >> they were there so quick and it was amazing. maybe we should have waited for first-responders. i didn't think we had a choice. we wanted to get him out of there because what uncertainty what a sinkhole is all about. >> i don't think it was a life-or-death situation at that point t got a little tenuous when i was down there by myself, i was like, i got out of that hole so

quick. i didn't wait for the rope to come down. >> reporter: the maintenance staff widened out the sinkhole to make sure nobody would fall in on a weak spot. >> it would have collapsed presumably in the next rain. this was just, really, bad luck. and i dare say you all wouldn't be here if there hadn't been a person there. these things happen. sinkholes form in farmers fields around here several times a year. there is no --. martha: sinkhole trial attorney. who knew that such a thing existed, right? he golfed on this same course. ted, welcome, good to have you here today. >> good morning. martha: you get a lot of these cases and how do they work out? do people get compensation for these? >> well here in florida, we have to deal with all kinds of weather. everything from hurricanes to sinkholes to waves, to anything. and so there's a lot of disputes between insurance companies and homeowners about issues like this. that's why we have to deal with them so frequently. martha: yeah. you played on this course.

do you think this man has a case? >> i have. martha: who would be sued? the course, i would assume? >> actually what we've come to understand, we believe because the sinkhole opened up there they may have selected a new pope. that is how we're interpreting it. martha: that's good. >> or the other suggestion, might have been that al gore actually was responsible for the creation of the sinkhole. i don't know. most of the time when we're dealing with these issues they have to deal with the, you know, when sinkholes like this cause tram tick damage to homes. and when there are disputes between homeowners and insurance companies over whether or not there are sinkholes or what the kind of damage is or how they would go about to repair them. martha: since you're telling jokes, there was a hole-in-one but there was definitely one in the hole in this case, right on the golf course. >> right. martha: ted, thank you. >> thank you so much. no, i was just going to say, he busted his shoulder. i'm glad he is okay. martha: we are too. thank you, ted. bill: you should have seen my drive, martha? chimney watch at the vatican, folks.

if you were up at 5:30 this morning you saw black smoke. we're awaiting the cardinals to meet yet again. live from the vatican, we'll take you there. [ male announcer ] this is the opposite of subliminal advertising... there's no subtext... just tacos. yeah, it's our job to make you want it. but honestly... it's not that hard. old el paso. when you gotta have mexican. but honestly... it's not that hard. dad: you excited for youyeah.st day? ♪ dad: you'll be fine, ok? girl: ok. dad: you look so pretty. ♪ i'm overprotective. that's why i got a subaru.

love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru.

. >> we are watching for the smoke as well at the vatican. i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm hem. president obama will talk to house republicans face-to-face meeting on the hill with him hours before democratic senator patti murray introduces her budget proposal. some of the highlights of the democratic plan, it does not balance the budget. it does include $257 billion in cuts to medicare providers. $975billion in new revenue, many of which will come by way of

closing tax loopholes. martha: chief congressional correspondent mike emanuel live from capitol hill. what else do we know about the senate democrat's plan, mike and how different it is from the one we heard proposed from the other side of the aisle from paul ryan. >> big differences from paul ryan's plan. this would fully replace the automatic spending cuts known as sequestration. it would spend or in vest in things like education, job training, infrastructure. they are calling for new tax revenue. leading senate republicans say that democrats are obsessed with raising taxes. >> what we are putting forth is own additional trillion dollars in taxes. they haven't said how they will do that, and that is on top of the $600 billion in revenue that came from the fiscal cliff. then you're 1. put the obamacare taxes on top of it. >> reporter: she says although

she disagrees with the democrat's philosophy and their approach is glad they are doing one for the first time, a budget for the first time in four years. martha: how about the other side, mike? what is the argument in favor of senator patti murray's plan? >> reporter: essentially what they are saying is that it would be a balanced approach to essentially fixing a lot of the fiscal problems that our country is facing. they are accusing republicans of doubling down on what they call extreme budget the american people rejected, they call the senate democrat's effort responsible for putting jobs and the economy first. >> it's a balanced approach, what we need to do with the economy. it will be brought to the floor next week we so. house republicans are moving further away from the compromise. >> reporter: and republicans are mocking this balanced approach rhetoric that the democrats are using, because of course this budget plan never balances,

martha. martha: indeed it does not. thank you very much. let's take a look at senate floor right now. dick durbin speaking just as 10:02 eastern time ago they try to deal with the fiscal situation in this country. harry reid spoke moments ago. let's take a look at what he had to say. >> as things now stand we are in the midst as i indicated of a filibuster to even try to get on the bill. if we get on the bill tomorrow morning and there are 30 hours waiting around staring at each other, and i just alert everyone, we have our easter recess coming a week from friday, and we are not going to be able to do that. martha: gosh, right, listen to that. do they ever get anything done, they've been waiting for this budget from the senate for how many years and now we are being told they'll just be staring at each other for 30 hours, says harry reid. we'll keep an eye on it. that is the doings on capitol

hill. bill: house republicans unveiling their plan. congressman paul ryan argues his idea will balance the budget and pay down our debt without raising taxes. his plan would balance the budget he says within ten years, by 2023 cutting spending by $4.6 trillion with no tax increase. the plan would also p repeal obama care. that is the law ryan argues will have to be done away with in time or changed dramatically. >> we are not just going to call for its repeal as our budget does we are going to show a better way to go. we are going to show a better way to have a patient-centered healthcare system controlled by the patient and her doctor, not a government-run system. that is a big difference of opinion. bill: as you can imagine the white house disagrees, is criticizing ryan's idea saying the math just doesn't add up. martha: april 1st is the deadline for the senate to present a budget resolution, and

that's going okay i guess according to harry reid this morning. they are hoping to get it done before their easter break. it hasn't really meant much in recent history. today marks 1414 days since the senate passed a budget resolution, that's how long it's been they've done the job they are supposed to do every abe. it goes back to april of 2009. and it wasn't an actual budget it was the guideline to the budget which is what comes first. since then nothing. bill: the house votes on a politically charged bill that would block the obama administration from waving any work requirements to receive welfare. the house republicans accuse the president of trying to gut the work requirement that was passed back in 1996. the white house says that requirement creates bureaucratic hurdles for states in placing welfare recipients. to the american southwest new concerns over securing our southern border there as spending changes in washington are expected to reduce border

patrolman power. meanwhile there is new attention on the technology that will be put on the front lines there. william la jeunesse has seen it firsthand at the border security expo in phoenix, arizona. william, good morning, there. >> reporter: bill, as you know a lot of the border is very rugged, it's mountains, canyons, of course the rio grand. you cannot build a physical fence there. the border patrol relies on a series of ground sensors to detect people coming in but also long-range cameras like this one that can see day and in it to tell them where illegals are and where they are going. >> the product is called the black wolf unattended surveillance system. it's a solar pour erred day-night camera system mounted on a trailer. you can tke employ it up to six miles away and control the cameras with a laptop. we have a color feed for daytime operations and a thermal feed

for nighttime operations. >> this vehicle can operate without the need of a driver. it's basic plea a housing, a mobile housing unit for sensors, cameras, any assets that ccb currently owns enable them to become dynamic as opposed to static. >> this is an lpr system, license plate recognition, it can actually monitor the entire state border area from one location. as the car goes by it automatically reads you, gives you the state of origin, it would be utilized to look at vehicles of high interest and based on that type of list they would be able to determine whether a car going over the border or coming into the border is on that list. >> reporter: what you're seeing now is point man, that is good in a swats situation. i'm joined by steve. tell me what the surveillance trailer does.

>> they would place this in an area where you have remote location, where they want to monitor what is going on, what traffic is there, whether it be foot traffic, vehicle photograph. the radar that you see spinning up there will cover a large area when they detect motion the camera will absolutely look at that location. in the case where the camera can't see they'll automatically launch one of these uav's out of the tube here so that they can get overhead video surveillance. >> reporter: cool. and this is one of the three stools of the infrastructure, manpower and of course technology bill that helps shrink the border and right now the border patrol could definitely use that. bill: all hand on deck and then too too. william la jeunesse live in phoenix. martha: to news on the political front, another bush family member is running for office. could this be the beginning of a future for george p. bush? he is the son of former florida governor jeb bush.

he's filed paperwork to run for texas land commissioner. the land commissioner oversees state-owned lands and resources. he is the nephew of former president george w. bush and the grandson of former president george h.w. bush. what a leg gas seat. it looks like there is a new generation emerging. bill: just a matter time. he's 36 now. you saw him in his early 20s when he was out there speaking and talking, and quite effective too. we'll see what happens with that election there. martha: interesting to watch. so the biggest names in u.s. intel have just revealed that there is actually a now and very serious fear that they have out there, what they are now saying is a bigger threat to the united states than al-qaida. bill: also, a major explosion here, flames inch gul inch gulfing an entire barge how the

entire crew managed to get out of that. >> we are on pope watch. here at home we are still watching. there is still hope that we could have an american pope, perhaps. >> as an american i don't think we've ever thought that that could ever happen. that part of it is exciting. >> whatever god wants. i just hope and pray that god will bring the right one and i know he will. i'm a conservative investor. but that doesn't mean i don't want to make money. i love making money. i try to be smart with my investments. i also try to keep my costs down. what's your plan? ishares. low cost and tax efficient. find out why nine out of ten large professional investors choose ishares for their etfs. ishares by blackrock. call 1-800-ishares for a prospectus which includes investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. read and consider it carefully before investing. risk includes possible loss of principal.

bill: this tugboat explosion, what images we have from this causing an oil barge to light up on fire. it happened in new orleans. it started when the tugboat hit a gas line in shallow water there. were reports of oil in the water as a result of that. all the crew members managed to get out okay. one listed, though, in critical condition after that fireball. martha: top intelligence officials are now warning that cyber attacks are a bigger threat to our national security, really, than al-qaida is at this point. a huge statement. the director of national

intelligence james clapper testified about this new report yesterday. here is some of that, listen. >> we can add cyber and financial to the list of weapons being used against us. so when it comes to the distinct threat areas our statement this year leads with saoeurb, and it's hard to over emphasize its significance. martha: richard granell joins me now, spokesperson for the last four ambassadors to the u.n. and a ton of experience following foreign policy and intelligence. richard, welcome, it's great to have you here this morning. they are saying the growing risk of computer-launched foreign assaults on the u.s. infrastructure, including the power grid, transportation hub all of our financial networks. i look back at how it felt to go through hurricane sandy. people were devastated. people couldn't get in touch with each other, couldn't get anywhere, couldn't get gasoline because of all the oil lines.

>> and that wasn't hostile. imagine if this was a hostile attack. we've been fighting this silent digital war for 20 years. people didn't want to talk about it because we didn't want people to understand that it's going on. imagine if a computer hacker from outside of iran can get inside iran, take control of the computer, and shut it down at their energy facilities. martha: that would be helpful. >> it would be helpful, but also remember that they can do that to us. they can take over your atm and suddenly all your digital records are gone. it's a serious problem. energy, transportation, everything is computerized. martha: it reminds me so much of growing up in the cold war years. it's as if we're at a mutually insured destruction stage of all of this. we look at them and say, we can do it to you. and they look at us and say, we could do it to you too. do we know who is more powerful at this stage? >> this e battle has been going on for so long in secret that i'm not sure that we do. one thing that we do know is

that silicon valley and our american technological advancements have the ability to take down the firewall. you know the berlin wall of digital able, really, in china in north korea, in cuba, and iran. we have the ability to do it. right now there is this global internet software, where if you're in iran and you want to get around your firewall you have to sign onto the software and only about 1.5 million people can use it because we just are not going after the technology fast enough. but for $30 million we could bring down the firewalls across the world. martha: the potential of that, richard. you think about all the people in north korea, in china, who want so much to have the freedom to, you know, be on twitter and social media and to have all that freedom. the impact of taking down that firewall could be potentially tremendous. >> it's also a national security issue for us. if china is having to fight its own people on transparency and government accountability issues

then they are not launching attacks at us, or at least they don't have the funds, the capacity, the current capacity to go after us. so i think it's taking the war to them. martha: understood and it's great point. one last question, though, in the current stage of where we are right now with all of this. what -- how soon do you think something like this could happen? you talk about nuclear weapons development and the timeframe on that. one day are we going to go, gee, what is wrong with my computer and it will be more than that? >> the defense department has a current authorization of $36 billion set aside to fight cyber security issues. we are spending a lot of money. why not spend 30, $50 million and take down the firewall and take the fight to them. martha: richard, very interesting. always good to have you here. bill: evidence of wasteful spend nothing washington, surprised there? in a bill to prevent a government shut down where the pork is going as that debt keeps racking on up.

martha: what nasa's curiosity rover found on the red planet, the scientists say may mean that life could have exused on mars. ♪ is there live and mars. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] in blind taste tests, even ragu users chose prego.

prego?! but i've been buying ragu for years. [ thinking ] i wonderhat other questionable choices i've made? [ club scene music ] [ sigh of relief ] [ male announcer ] choose taste. choose prego.

martha: a deadly crash involving a bus that was carrying a college lacrosse team and a porsche. the sports car spun out of control on a wet road in upstate new york, it slammed into the bus and sent it on its side. a passenger in that porsche we understand was killed. nearly three dozen lacrosse players from st. michael's college in vermont were on that bus.

thankfully none them were seriously hurt. bill: it is one of the big is unknown mysteries that continues to keep all of us hanging on a ledge here. was there ever live on mars? nasa scientists report the mars rover curiosity collected an ancient rock sam he will a month ago and new analysis shows there are key inventory greed kwrepbts that coulinventory greed kwrepbts that could have supported life. >> what does this finding mean? >> what the discovery means is that we've been able to identify 96% of the chemical building blocks for life as we know it here on this planet. being able to identify those elements, when you put it together with the fact that we know mars was warmer and wetter in the past tells us that in the early history of mars the environment would have been conducive to the development of

microbial life. so the environment would have been good for life possibly to have developed on that planet. the environment would have been good. bill: the rover is literally drilling into a mars rock. how does curiosity get this information from the gravel, or the soil, whatever is inside of that rock? >> well this is a really remarkable device because it has so many science tools right on board to do the analysis to be able to determine what the composition of the rock is. it can identify the rock that it wants to look at from a great distance, roll over to it, drill into it, pull up some powdered material and put it into a chemical analysis package on board the rover. they they can do the chemical analysis right there on the surface of mars, transfer the results back to earth where scientists here can look at the results of that and sort of confirm what's been discovered, and in that way it's just like having a geologist right on the surface of the planet.

almost like having a geologist there. bill: i want to stress and it's important to stress could is the operative word here. could have supported life. that's not a definitive right. >> that is absolutely correct. what nasa is doing is looking to see if the environment on mars at one time would have been conducive, or would have been possible to support life. it's not looking for life, this is not evidence of life, it's just looking at the building blocks that we've now found there. bill: and we are finding also that mars may have been a lot more earth-like some years ago as well. >> yeah. bill: what is next for the rover, what is the next step in this process? >> well you could say in a way that a lot of the primary mission here -- some of the primary mission has been accomplished of being able to identify the environment. the next thing to do is to start looking for more complex chemical compound, hopefully finding some more organic compound that would indicate the possibility of further development toward the amino acid part of the building blocks

of life. it's a step-by-step process, very, very slow, very methodical, make sure it's correct every step of the way. bill: when there are more headlines come online on back. derek pitts out of philadelphia with us today. thank you, sir. >> thank you. martha: today there are some serious new warnings from the fda about a drug that is prescribed to to more than 40 million americans a year. chances are you or somebody in your family has taken this this year. but there are potentially deadly risks behind it. we'll talk to dr. manny coming up. bill: they are being paid with your tax dollars, why more than 300,000 federal employees are avoiding their own taxes. and you're about to find out who the biggest offenders are. ♪ so i'm the tax man, yeah, i'm the tax man. should 5% appear to small ... ♪ ♪

the vegetables do. at green giant, we pk vegetables only when they're perfect. then freeze them fast so they're are as nutritious as fresh. [ green giant ] ho ho ho. ♪ green giant [ green giant ] ho ho ho. michael, tell us why you used to book this fabulous hotel? well you can see if the hotel is pet friendly before you book it, and i got a great deal without bidding. and where's your furry friend? oh, i don't have a cat. now you can save up to 50% during priceline's spring hotel sale use promo code spring for additional savings on all express deals, including pet friendly hotels. express deals. priceline savings without the bidding.

bill: so there are allegations now, new allegations of wasteful spending in the hidden -- hidden in the continuing resolution being debated in the senate right now. senators john mccain and tom coburn yesterday raising concerns about the pork, but senator coburn says they will not block the bill from moving forward. >> there is a lot that we ought to discuss this about bill. there is no attempt to filibuster the bill. there was an attempt to do our jobs, which is actually read the bill and see what is in it, and

be prepared to offer constructive criticisms to the bill. bill: how novel. my guest former new york senator al demat demato. a fox news contributor. how novel to read the bill first. >> isn't it amazing, senator coburn and senator mccain say look, we want 72 hours to read 587 pages, it has over a trillion dollars worth of spending, and then they get attacked by the democrats for saying, why are you stalling? and if you take a quick look at some of the things they've pointed out, spending over $150 million for alternative fuel for the military, $26 a gallon. if you think $4 is high, how about 26? by the way, i asked my former colleagues in the congress, who are jack asses and i say that,

without respect, how could you authorize a program like that -- did you ever hear of natural gas? it is so plentiful. if you want to start converting into energy efficiency, alternative natural gas, $26 a gallon, a $150 million, and that's the kind of pork, that's the kind of thing, and that's why people have distain for politicians. bill: that is just one example. here is some more, $300,000 of taxpayer money to promote caviare. nasa has invested 1.5 million for an online game. another one, 325,000 for a federal grant to build a robo squirrel which is designed to answer the question of what happens when a snake is confronted by a robot squirrel built to look, act and even smell like the real thing. we have that going for us. >> how about a menu of a million

dollars a year they are spend opening a menu for people who travel to mars. there are no plans to have people traveling to mars and yet they put in the budget a million dollars. bill: was it any different now than when you were a senator? >> the problem is that it is much more -- no, it's not different. we had a lot of wasteful programs, but i have to tell you the budget situation was not nearly as dangerous as it is today. bill: we are paying more attention to it. >> oh, and we had better. we had better get ahead of this problem and not face a situation where the interest rates we're paying on the national debt go up to 4, 5, 6%, where you're going to see us spending more on interest than we do on programs, and that's where we're headed. and the warning is being sounded. but my democratic colleague friend seem not interested in capping or beginning to slow the growth down. bill: that idea, it's almost

novel outside of washington, because very few times has any government program been forced to scale back. so now you have this debate about where are the smart cuts. what do you think? >> that's right. and that is why when john mccain and coburn say, hey, let's look at these programs, let's look at some of this wasteful spending, so that we can cut intelligently, so that we don't eliminate, for example, necessary programs for senior citizens, and education, or curtail them when we shouldn't. we've just touched on a couple of examples of the most egregious -- bill: how about $65 million for salmon restoration. senator mccain is talking about that. the president talked about that too in 2011 in the state of the union address. is the time right now? we've talked a lot about republicans here, but for both sides to eliminate the waste?

>> absolutely. the time is to say that we want to be able to eliminate every one of these absolutely outrage just programs, the pork that we see. you know, i used to fight like crazy and they'd call me the pothole senator, yeah, but you know what the projects i fought for, they were good projects, widening route 17, because we continue get the federal government to do it, so congressman houten and i did it. it was the most deadly federal route east of the mississippi, it was only two lanes and people were getting killed all the time. bill: you argue there are smart cuts. >> they are smart spending as opposed to pork. as you pointed out a program to study for a squirrel. bill: thank you very much. good luck with the squirrels. 25 minutes before the hour. martha: as someone who drives on state prison every day thank you very much. the fda raising an alarm on a popular antibiotic known as z

pack. you've heard of it. your kids have probably been prescribed it. it could trigger an irregular and potentially deadly heart matter. it is prescribed to treat bacterial infections. pneumonia, ear infections that kids get so often. it was prescribed to 40 million americans in 2011, and sales in the last year exceeded $435 million. it's a block-busker drug. dr. manny alvarez is senior managing editor at foxnewshealth.com and a member of the fox news medical a team. surprising news about z pack. >> the news came out last year in 2012, finally the fda looked very carefully at the study and they concluded indeed that for certain groups of peep, especially people who have heart irregularities, low magnesium, low poe tas time, you can get a

heart arrhythmia that can be quite deadly. martha: is it dangerous to give to kids. >> not necessarily. i don't think this will change dramatically the use of z pack for sinus infections and things like that. it tells doctors -- for me i walk the hallways and people say, hey can i have a z pack i'm going away or i have a sinus infection. i think doctors have to be a little bit more careful now, well are there any other underlying problems, are you taking any cardiac medications, have you been dehydrated, things of this sort and be a little more cautious because there are significant changes that can occur. i think it's still going to be used routinely for certain types of infection. >> are. martha: if you are prescribed this by your doctor, you know, what should you be aware of in your self? what should you mention to your doctor as a potential concern for you taking this drug? >> well, again i think do you have any cardiac history? are you taking any medication for cardiac irregularities, number one.

number 3, do you suffer from any -- have you had any -- do you have any malnutrition issues, are you low in magnesium, have you had vomiting, some people get a sinus infection for a long period of time they may have a lot of vomiting, there you lose potassium, you start taking a z pack you could have an impact also in your heart reuplt. have you to have a conversationment it's not as routine as saying, i'm going to take a couple of motrins because i have a headache it doesn't work like that. now with this latest study, and you'll see the warnings a little bit more prominent in the z pack. martha: i would imagine that a lot of people are just going to say, don't give me z pack i heard something on the news about that, so give me something else, right? >> i don't think so. there's been a variety of anti-biotics, it's a family group where the z pack belongs, also the lea levequins, there are many ant biotitics that could change the electrical heart rhythm and they could

cause side effects. you have to be careful. anti-biotics are not routine medications, and patients should be careful asking for them and the doctors should not make them so routine. martha: the drug companies, it's a lot of money. they will be very keurpbd about this and try some damage patrol, right. >> i think so. pfizer stock dipped down a little bit. i think doctors will be aware and it will be okay. martha: dr. man aoerbgs thank you. bill: z pack is no common. the world is walking a six-foot criminal my and the cardinals of the catholic church are now getting ready to cast the next ballot for a new pope. what can we expect?

>> announcer: you never know when, but thieves can steal your identity and turn your life upside down. >> hi. >> hi. you know, i can save you 15% today if you open up a charge card account with us. >> you just read my mind. >> announcer: just one little piece of information and they can open bogus accounts,

stealing your credit, your money and ruining your reputation. that's why you need lifelock to relentlessly protect what matters most... [beeping...] helping stop crooks before your identity is attacked. and now you can have the most comprehensive identity theft protection available today... lifelock ultimate. so for protection you just can't get anywhere else, get lifelock ultimate. >> i didn't know how serious identity theft was until i lost my credit and eventually i lost my home. >> announcer: credit monitoring is not enough, because it tells you after the fact, sometimes as much as 30 days later. with lifelock, as soon as our network spots a threat to your identity, you'll get a proactive risk alert, protecting you before you become a victim. >> identity theft was a huge, huge problem for me and it's gone away because of lifelock. >> announcer: while no one can stop all identity theft, if criminals do steal your information, lifelock will help fix it, with our $1 million service guarantee.

don't wait until you become the next victim. you have so much to protect and nothing to lose when you call lifelock now to get two full months of identity theft protection risk free. that's right, 60 days risk-free. use promo code: gethelp. if you're not completely satisfied, notify lifelock and you won't pay a cent. order now and also get this shredder to keep your documents out of the wrong hands-- a $29 dollar value, free. get protected now. call the number on your screen or go to lifelock.com to try lifelock protection risk free for a full 60 days. bill: three escaped inmates now caught off an intense manhunt. this is missouri now. authorities saying that the prison break happened lit on monday night and police tracked them to a nearby salvage yard where one of the inmates had worked previously.

the sheriff saying it appears the suspect climbed through the air ducts to get out and then blamed construction flaws within the building. >> it is frustrating beyond word. we have drywall ceilings in a jail, it's just unfathomable. the walls don't completely go up to the ceiling, and it's just -- it just baffles the find. bill: two of the escape he's are facing murder charges, the third is charged with a home invasion. martha: all right. well you know we have been looking at these amazing pictures in vatican city and there is a live shot right now. minutes from now those 115 cardinals length ter will enter the sistine chapel for prayers and start the next round of voting. we expect there will be two votes over the course of this afternoon. early this morning we saw the black smoke pour out of the similar knee which signaled that

there is no new pope as of yet. we are very glad to be joined here in the studio today by father james martin, jesuit priest, a lot of great books as well from father martin. it's so nice to have you here, welcome. >> my pleasure. martha: do you have a gut feeling for when we are going to hear something. >> i do. my gut is either this afternoon or tomorrow. interestingly, if it's not this afternoon people say this it's a more wide open field of candidates. so we'll see. martha: if we get nothing today it could mean that it is not, perhaps, cardinal scolia. do you believe he's the frontrunner? >> i believe he is. once they are behind the closed doors it's anybody's guess. >> there is the archbishop of milan who has just been brought up. even though he's an italian he is considered somebody who is more of an outsider to the roman c urbg ria becaus curia because

the feeling is he would bring in a fresh breath of reform >> has been archbishop of venice and ma hrafpblt he has on ground experience and not someone from the curia. someone who is an italian who knows the curia who knows how to reform it. martha: sher is from latin america which is a nice way to open up to that whole part of the world that is driving in the catholic church in the center of gravity is moving in the catholic church to the southern hemisphere, latin america, africa, where it's booming. it will be a real sign that the church's center of gravity has moved decisively. martha: there are a lot of new yorkers and folks in boston that are hope this goes on a little longer. they feel that might open the door to an american pope. are we going to have our hopes dashed or is there a possibility do you think?

>> i would say it's unlikely but it's not impossible. i hope we don't have our hopes dashed. i would love to see cardinal dolan oro mali. both would be excellent. the longer it goes on the better chance for an outsider. martha: how do you think awful this is being covered? every time i look at the newspaper or look at anything it's like the scandal-ridden church, the church in crisis. frankly, of course we all knowledge that there have been crises in the church, but it's not what i see on sunday. i see a packed church when i go to church on sunday. eye not when i feel when i talk to other catholic tph-s this in this country. is it being misrepresent stphed? i would say it's like the government u have government workers who go to work every day and do good jobs but a lot of times it's sort of focused on the bad news. would i say that interestingly some of the conclave coverage is balancing this out. talk about good pr or the church, it's all this pageantry and excitement and interest. even in the mist of canned tkals

people are rivets have ited by what is going on at this six-foot smokestack. martha: obviously when they are in there it's all prayer and voting. then they come out and have lunch. what is your feel for what happens there? obviously they are all very hesitant, they are not going to say, hey, did you vote for me? did you put my name on the ballot. >> they are not. that would be kind of a disfall guy indication almost. as you're saying during the lunch times and dinner times there are informal conversations about have you taken a look at this guy, what about this person? i think right now after three ballots they are probably trying to figure out where there are votes and who can we cast our support behind but they are trying to do it in an atmosphere of prayer as you are saying. martha: we were talking to a reporter earlier in the show and she was talking about the pope emeritus, pope benedict who is this. >> isn't that something. martha: and he's listening to everybody talk about what the church really means which is a commentary on how he did, no

previous pope in modern history has had that experience. it must be rather strange. >> it must be very odd. someone said at some point the pope emeritus will have to greet the new pope and kiss his ring. there will be a million photo shots of that. i think he's relieved to be able to kickback a little bit and have the burden of office off his shoulders. martha: there has been so much discussion about the documents and vatileaks issue, whether or not that will be revealed and shared with the new pope, whatever information is in there. what are your thoughts on that? >> apparently a lot of it has been shared already with the cardinals. these are the 115 most pow irfull men in the church. if they want to know what is in the documents they are going to be revealed to them. i think they are going into this conclave if not knowing a lot of what is in the documents then at least knowing that they need to appoint someone who can take care of things and really reform. martha: we are going to roll this tape and you'll tell thaws this white smoke will happen when? >> i'd say this afternoon or tomorrow morning. we'll see.

martha: father martin thank you so much. great to have you with us today. >> my pleasure. bill: the first thing you did this morning, right was turn on the tv and watch the chimney. >> that is true. turned on twitter then turned on the tv. martha: there it is. i see a little smoke coming out. bill: that is not live, though. >> oh, okay. martha: that's from before. bill: unless there is a really big breaking news story that we don't know. jon scott coming up now on "happening now." jon: you guys only have 12 minutes to get a new pope elected. otherwise it will fall to us. like you we are awaiting the results of that papal conclave, the cardinals locked away in vatican city, another opportunity for results during our two hours today. we are live in rome. plus the low down on organizing for action, why that advocacy group is getting some blistering criticism. have you heard about that? and the new access of evil, why the u.s. needs to worry about north korea, iran and syria, plus the dirty little secret of green cars, some amazing

statistics, coming up "happening now." bill: the clock will start in 11 minutes. there we go. jon: we'll look for that smoke. bill: a breaking story about the -- well the fight over spending cuts in washington, the agencies that claim they were told to make it as painful as possible. what gives there? an a stunning number of federal employees oh big money in unpaid taxes. how much money and who is the biggest deliquent, you're about to find out. hello?

the words are going this way-there's no way. oh, the lights came on. isn't technology supposed to make life easier? at chase we're pioneering innovations that make banking simple.

deposit a check with a photo. pay someone with an email. and bank seamlessly with our award-winning mobile app. take a step forward... and chase what matters.

martha: we are told that there is some interesting back and forth going on at the appropriations committee right now. there are food safety officials there, and they are testifying before the committee about how the sequester will impact meat and pole straoe inspection which we've heard so much b. they are

saying that representative tom lathem is asking the questions. he is asking this representative whether or not she was ever told that she should make these cuts look as painful as possible. if you remember there was a story that we brought to you earlier, or late last week, rather, where there was a memo that went out where somebody from this department said, oh, well we were basically told that we could move the money around as long as we didn't really change the impact that the white house had discussed, all of this was going to happen. so she is saying that didn't happen, she said she didn't have a discussion with the president personally, certainly. and she is sure that he is aware of the impact. that story is going on on capitol hill. bill: a newly released irs report revealing that federal employees being paid with your tax dollars are not paying their own fair share of the government bill. 312,000 employees in the federal government involved here. they oh $3.5 billion in back

taxes. chief political correspondent carl cameron joins us. >> reporter: last yore's taxes the 2011 cycle showed a 12% increase in deliquent taxes from federal employees from the year before that. 3.2% of federal workers are actually cling went. and compared to the general public, which is at about 8 there is a big disparity. the federal employees, because they are made with tax dollars have some explaining to to. you showed the numbers there they owe a whooping $3.5 billion. even in the executive office of the president of the united states there are 40 obama staffers that owe more than $340,000. there are 700 hill staffers that owe almost $11 million. even in the court system where a lot of tax cases end up lots of employee, lots of federal court employees owe $13 million. jason shave et ceter chaffetz

has a plan to crackdown. watch. >> you would think the federal workers would be the first ones to feel a tku duty and obligation to pay their taxes. we have over a hundred thousand, current sed ra sed ral employees, made by the taxpayers that don't pay their taxes. my bill says if you don't pay your taxes you should be fired. >> reporter: there are other irons in the fire. the post office has the biggest problem, 22,000 workers and they owe $215 million in deliquent back taxes. bill: some of these government dash those who receive some of the government contracts are still getting the contracts, even though they still owe back taxes. >> reporter: the federal employee versus the independent outside contractor it is a completely different problem and it's by a magnitude of almost double. a major problem. both parties are talking about taking this on. here is the issue. small contractors are getting paid and getting contractors and

they owe billions of dollars, listen. >> we introduced a bill that basically says no more. we are not going to have $5 billion are unpaid federal income taxes by contractors to the federal government can't to get money from taxpayers when they don't even pay their fair share. >> reporter: billions and billions are dollars at stake. to give you an idea of the iron tphaoefplt the irs which includes the treasury department and the irs, one in ten of them heir taxes and the irs is part of the treasury. bill: you can't get away with that. >> reporter: it's maddening, it's the kind of thing that crosses your eyes. bill: thank you, carl. talk to you soon. martha: there are serious new developments that we're learned about concerning north korea, after reports that they are teaming up with iran and syria. what this really means after this. ♪

♪ ♪ we're lucky, it's not every day you find a companion as loyal as a subaru. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru.